The present invention relates to assisting a user of an apparatus with adjustment of the timing of user-activity-dependent operational state changes of the apparatus.
It is known for operating systems running on a data processing system to trigger display of a screen saver or to blank the screen of a display device after a preset period of inactivity by the system user. xe2x80x9cInactivityxe2x80x9d in this context means that the user has not interacted with a user input device for which user activity is being measured. The operating system receives signals from an input controller connected to the input devices whenever the user interacts with an input device (for example, whenever the user moves a mouse or presses a keyboard key), each user interaction resetting a timer. If no such signals are received within the preset time period then the operating system displays a preselected screen saver animation sequence or image or blanks the screen.
Screen savers are displayed for a number of reasons, including to protect confidential information when the user is absent, to present a particular message, rolling demonstration or advertisement if the monitor is located where it can be seen by an audience, or merely to please the user. Originally, screen saver animation sequences and screen blanking were used to avoid the xe2x80x9cscreen burnxe2x80x9d which could result from displaying the same image for a long time, but this is no longer a problem on most modern display devices.
In many operating systems, the user can specify the required period of inactivity before the screen saver is displayed, and also specify a period of inactivity before the display monitor switches to a low power standby mode and/or switches off to save energy. Each transition including displaying the screen saver, changing to the low power mode, and automatically switching off a display monitor can be described as a change of operational state of the apparatus.
Screen savers may be password protected (i.e. once displayed, the user has to enter a valid password to remove the screen saver) or the screen saver may disappear as soon as the user interacts with an input device, and the user may be able to specify whether or not password protection is required.
A problem which arises with screen saver display and other changes of operational state of a data processing apparatus is that a lack of user interaction with input devices is not a reliable indicator that the user is absent. The user may be reading text on the display screen at the time the operating system determines that an inactivity time period has expired, and then the screen saver overlays what the user is trying to read or the monitor switches off. Although the user typically only has to move the mouse or press any keyboard key for the screen saver to be removed, nevertheless the appearance of the screen saver while the user is trying to read can be annoying. If the screen saver is password protected or if the monitor switches off, then the action required of the user and the time taken to return to the text they were reading can be sufficient to destroy their train of thought. This can be very irritating and reduces the user""s productivity.
Users typically do not want to have to open a new window to reset the inactivity time periods while they are involved in another task, and users often forget what sequence of steps is required for operations that they seldom perform such as changing these settings. For these reasons, there may be repeated unwanted appearances of the screen saver while the user is trying to read a large document, and then when the user has completed that task they may forget to reset the inactivity time periods so that the frustration is repeated later.
One solution to this problem is provided by Microsoft Corporation""s Windows 98 operating system. If a user moves the mouse pointer to a specific corner of the screen, the operating system interprets this as a request not to display the screen saver. This can be useful for reading long documents, but it has the inconvenience of requiring proactive mouse pointer positioning by the user. Also, users typically want the mouse pointer to remain available for interaction with items within the graphical user interface. Furthermore, many data processing and communications devices are not capable of running Windows 98 or include a mouse.
The Windows 98 operating system also allows users to specify a time period before password protection is applied which is different from the time period before the screen saver is displayed. This helps to minimize the problem of unwanted display of the screen saver, since if the user sets a longer period before password protection is applied they can typically cause the screen saver to disappear by merely moving the mouse. Nevertheless, the appearance of the screen saver can be annoying and the user still has to open the appropriate window to change screen saver settings. As mentioned, the time at which the screen saver appears may be an inconvenient time to have to open additional windows to change settings.
The problems of irritation and reduced user productivity caused by automatic activation of operational state changes of an apparatus at times which are inconvenient to the user are relevant to many different types of operational state change in many different types of apparatus.
The present invention provides a method and means for assisting with adjustment of the timing of user-inactivity-dependent changes of operational state of an apparatus, by identifying user interactions following a change of operational state, determining when the user""s interactions or lack of interaction following the change of state suggest that a change to an inactivity time period is desirable, and either automatically changing the inactivity time period or prompting the user to change the time period.
Various different policies may be applied for determining when the user""s interactions following a state change suggest a desire for an increase to an inactivity time period. In a first embodiment, if the user interacts with an input device within 5 seconds after a user-inactivity-dependent change of operational state such as display of the screen saver, then this is interpreted as an indication that the user did not want the state change to occur at that time. If the user interacts with an input device within this 5 second period following three consecutive appearances of the screen saver (or other state change), then this activates an automatic increase of the inactivity period before the screen saver is displayed. For example, the inactivity time period may be changed from 5 minutes to 6 minutes.
The criteria for determining when an increase to the inactivity period seems to be required could be the same or different for different types of operational state change of an apparatus. For example, when a monitor switches to a low power mode following a period (e.g. 20 minutes) of user inactivity, a check may be performed of whether the user interacts with an input device connected to the apparatus within a 1 minute period following this mode switch. If the user consistently interacts with the apparatus during this 1 minute period following switch to the low power mode, then that is interpreted as an indication that the switch to low power mode after 20 minutes inactivity was not required. The inactivity period before switching to low power mode may then be changed to 30 minutes.
In another example, a user may be automatically logged off from a remote server computer system or process if the user does not interact with the remote system or process via interaction with a device which is local to the user. Hence, while in some embodiments of the invention the interactions which are compared with a timer may be all of the user""s interactions with the local device (if the state transition is intended to be activated in response to a determination of lack of use of the local apparatus), in other embodiments the relevant interactions are only specific types of user interaction if the state transition is relevant to a remote resource.
Additionally, if a state transition is relevant to only a specific component of the local apparatus then it may be that only the interactions which are relevant to that component are monitored in comparison with the inactivity timer.
A number of different responses are possible following determination that the user appears to want a change to the inactivity time period, and these may differ significantly for different state transitions and different apparatus. For example, the relevant inactivity time period may be automatically increased or the user may be prompted to increase the period. Such prompting may be via a pop up window which includes input fields or scrollable lists of selectable values for screen saver settings and/or settings for when to switch to low power mode and/or when to switch off the display device or other components of the apparatus. Note that the mode switch to a low power standby mode and switching off may be applied separately to different power-consuming components of an apparatus, and hence the measurement of user interactions following such state changes may be implemented separately for each state change.
The user may be prompted, for example by a pop up window, at the time it is determined that a change to an inactivity period seems to be desired, or only at some later time when the user""s task is deemed to be complete such as when the user indicates completion by selecting log off or shut down.
It is also possible to determine that an inactivity period before a change of operational state is longer than an optimum period of time. For example, some users may specify very long inactivity periods before a state change occurs to minimize their personal inconvenience, but this may conflict with the energy saving aims of the a organization which owns the apparatus they are using. Users setting long inactivity periods may also impact security or reduce the amount of time for which a desired company logo or rolling demonstration is displayed. For these reasons, the present invention may also be used to automatically reduce an inactivity period towards an optimum inactivity period if it is determined that the user consistently does not interact with the apparatus in a preset time period following a state change.
To avoid increasing user annoyance when implementing the above automatic reduction feature, the policy which is implemented may be to only reduce the inactivity period if the user consistently does not interact with the system in the preset short period following a state change over an extended period (for example, over an extended period such as 4 hours or 1 week).
The present invention may be implemented within an operating system of a data processing apparatus, or in any component of an apparatus which is capable of monitoring user interactions and comparing with a system clock to enforce a user-inactivity-dependent state transition.